RJ'S/beginning

I had my sleeve done a year ago on Nov.6th...That day changed my life forever.....I struggled very hard to get where I am today...The good thing is I am 176 lbs. down ( love saying that ) And feeling great.... You will soon join us all in the losers circle and Celebrate the new and improved you......congrats!!!

Buyers remorse..it happens to all of us...Glad you are feeling better....keep us posted...K

I hear you...taking stairs now myself. Bony butt...awful.....No one recognizes me..That is a good thing..NO ONE has commented on my weight loss..My neighbor who used to be my friend is now ignoring me. I think she is angry because I did not give her all the details...She is a nurse and I think she wanted to take credit for my weight loss...My hubby thinks that she is just waiting for me to gain it all back.... Life can send curves that's for sure.. Don't stress too much seems to me you are working your sleeve well...STOP weighing yourself so much you are going to get false readings and then get discouraged....K

My daughter took me shopping yesterday at a regular store....no over weight expensive clothes...The problem is that the clothes I bought fit me to a T...when I looked in the mirror all I saw was a really fat woman squeezing into small clothes.... My family said they were fitting and that I should wear them on vacation next week....I am so depressed because I think they look to tight and everyone else feels they are right.....The mind is a terrible thing to fix!!!! I will bring them with me but I am so used to covering up myself and hiding, that this is going to be very hard for me to change.....

I was terrified when I had to deal with it all after surgery and it was up to me to make the right choices to be successful....Once you are in the grove...piece of high Protein cake! You'll find a lot of help here and there is always someone who has felt, looked, asked, and solved any issue that a sleever can go through....

Hello and welcome to the forum!!!!

No I am a kept woman and a starving artist...lol You never know it is good to be safe then sorry I say.....But not everyone is me right!!

I wondered the same thing..I find I cannot sit still..I am always on the run now......Always doing something...because.....now I can!!!!love it!!!!!

I have made a similar comment in the past...But in reality..I don't think we can depict most things with this surgery..emotional or physical....Journey you are right!!!! Hind sight is 20/20...And that is where this forum comes in...You can learn a lot from ones like you and others who have had to struggle to change your life......Just keep swimming!!!!

No I had no health issues except....a lot of weight.....Throughout this year I have posted my story for people to read as an example oh how it might not be a hop, skip and a jump for us.....Some have really appreciated it when things went bad for them.... It was the darkest time in my life....And I changed so much because of it in so many ways....I really think that part of me did die at that time ..... But I Celebrate the changes that are positive and go forward as a new healthier me!!!!!

you rock!!!!!

I have given up the secret love of my life "FOOD". The one who gave me comfort if only for a little while. The one I depended on to help me through the tough times. The one that brought me pleasure and happiness even though it was temporary. The one I trusted to get me through every pain, happiness, celebration, family get together's and so on. The one that was always there for me through the good the bad and ugly. The one thing I could always count on for support if everything else failed. The one that told me it brings happiness, pleasure and fulfillment like so many restaurants and the slogans for fast food joints promise...Happy meal...you get it!! The one who I tried so many times to break up with and it found its way back to you stronger and more powerful then before.... Why would you not dream about it. Fear it, try to control it and finally conquer it and put it in its place ...I will eat to survive not to live to eat... We are changing our entire relationship with food. The one thing we could always count on...But not without its consequences...health, how people view us, medical disdain for us and the over all ignorance of society... It will take some time for the fears to be brought into place and we may never think that we will have a normal relationship with food....We take it day by day. Minute by minute...That is called food addiction and we are all here with the same issues..... I will never trust me again to have a relaxed relationship with food...So that brings on the doubts and worries and dreams and fear of failure.... But it is up to me to pull out the will power and fix my brain to make it all work...A lot of sleevers have been totally successful and we can too..Faith in oneself and building up knowledge of what is better and healthier to eat as well as not making it the focus of life will go a long way in us succeeding... You can do this and I can too...And we will! How do you feel about it?

Get some G2 Gatorade and mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with water and drink that...It will hydrate you very quickly...almost 1 year out I still drink some every day....I get in a lot of fluids too but I know I still need it.....

They told me that the tissue died around the incision and then abscesses formed...This led to a lot of pain and agony. I had a temperature of 104 and I was squirting brown liquid out of my staples....I was pale as a ghost and kept going in and out, passing out! At first it was not painful..I just felt stuffed all the time and off....As it progressed I got worse...I almost died...And my legs and feet started to really swell up...That was the first sign of a problem.

STOP weighing yourself so much.....You are going to get discouraged....It is not worth it trust me...3 lbs down was plenty reason to be excited.....Next week you could see that other half of pound.......Come on girl..Just thinking of your over all happiness..K

I went into surgery with such anticipation...I could not wait..I was ready and willing to do almost anything to get this show on the road..... I came home on the 3rd day and returned with a leak 4 days later....This led to 5 months of a hospital stay with several surgeries and other severe complications..... After 5 months I came home and had nursing care for another 5 months.....Still not out of the woods yet! Would I do it again..In a split second..I am nothing like I was before surgery..I am living now, before, existing...I love my sleeve and so glad I did it...176 lbs. down...36 to go...I feel so brand new!!!!

The first signs of a leak is fatigue! Next your temperature rises and continues....Then you turn white as a ghost and pass out..In my case the Fluid started to leak out of my staples....Okay, went out like a sprinkler...It was very scary for me...If my grand daughter had not pushed her hands on my stomach for a hug....I would surely have been dead in the morning..It was that that started the blur of 5 months to come added to that 5 more recouping at home.

No there is no time to lose..you get septic extremely fast and if unchecked....Your chances of coming out of it are slim to none...Trust me..I almost died and I had a leak for only 4 days at that point...It is a dangerous thing to have....

Worse then the sagging..I see my mother staring back at me and she is 80....yikes!

I wonder if coughing with pneumonia is a factor there.....sometimes weird things just happen eh!

If I had done that to my hubby he would be seriously ill..He is one of those long drinks of Water...loses weight if he misses one meal... I have never expected him to eat like me or even eat my stuff...But as I go along I find him trying my food and eating my left overs and he says he feels better and it is because like the lady said above...I introduced new food to him..... This is my journey, not his...he will never really understand what I have and will go through...So I don't look for any special commendation from him....That said..He is totally on board and supports me anyway ...I know I have to run this race, not anyone else who has not experienced this journey... That is one reason I am on this forum so much..There are people here like me who understand the struggles we faced and face.......Use this forum as your support system if you must...I personally am grateful for it...Your going to do great...and I think he will follow...

I am so glad he gave you that kind of reassurance...But there are many instances where people have had a leak up to 6 months out....Like I said before it can happen..It happened to me which led to a five month stay in the hospital....It was less then a week out..But it lasted 4 1/2 months before they were finally able to fix it... The true answer is to take care of your sleeve especially at the beginning and there is a very good chance it won't happen to you...Sometimes **** happens like with me and there was nothing I did..The stitches just let loose.....

It can depend on how you treated the sleeve when you first had it..Sometimes people rush to the second and third levels of eating before the staples are even healing around your stomach....It is easy to have a leak and then the fun really begins..I know been there...not fun at all... The thing is to follow your teams advice and stick to their plan esp. at the beginning....Once scar tissue forms around the sleeve it will be almost impossible to have a leak.....

Your stomach is telling you that you are done...We are so used to ignoring the bodies hints that we have had enough to eat.... I eat a bite and then put my fork down...then when I am ready to eat another bite I pick up the fork and repeat this routine....1/2 way through though I stop for about 5 min. and allow my stomach to tell me if it has had enough....Most of the time I do not eat any more after the 1/2 way point.....Some people have true signs of when they are full like sneezing, or their nose runs...or they can't stop belching.... There is nothing wrong with leaving food on your plate...I have considered that a victory for me as I have finally broke the lesson taught of eat everything on your plate. People are dying in Africa you know because they have no food...... Eating is not an all day thing....3 meals 3 Snacks at first...I eat 3 meals now and 1 snack at night. The snack is usually 1/4 cup of nuts or fruit.... You will soon be able to tell exactly how your body and stomach are working for you...You just have to really start to listen to it...K

There was a time not so long ago that during the sleeve surgery a lacky ( intern ) would have to hold the liver up so that the surgeon could get to the stomach. Now they have a clamp that holds the liver up and out of the way for surgery....If the liver is too fatty it can slip out of the clamp. Then there is a risk of cutting into the liver which is much more of an ordeal then just working on the sleeve.....Medical progress sometimes means we have to make the change for the better of ourselves...