RJ'S/beginning

It has been 17 months since I was sleeved. It has been the road from hell getting to where I am right now....I am still here so not everything is bleak!

Well I went to the Chiropractor on Saturday and he asked me to do him a favor and have the pain I was having in my left side checked out. It was not a dislocated rib...Yikes! I said sure and went home to put more heat on it to help with the pain...4 am I woke my hubby up and asked him to take me to the hospital. There they started an IV and gave me some wonderful pain killers. After they did a Cat Scan They found out I have an abscess on my sleeve. The surgeon said he could drain it but did not like to handle Bariatric patients.... Soooooooooooooo he also felt that it was no big issue and that I could wait until Tuesday ( 4 day long weekend here ) to go and find out what to do with it. Nope.. my hubby disagreed. So I packed a bag and drove 1.5 hours away to my surgeon and his team. They admitted me and the next day started antibiotics and pain meds. Yesterday they put a drain in it and drained the abscess. It was pretty ugly stuff. But the surgeon was pleased that it was not a leak...This afternoon he removed the drain and said because no food was in the pouch that I did not have a leak...Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I am on some heavy antibiotics and blood thinners at home...Pains in my side but a quick stay in hospital..not 5 months... 6 weeks I have to go back and he is going to put a scope down my throat and see if some of the staples have wiggled their way to the surface. If so...then he will go in and remove them..... Some fun..It never ends for me...Good times and noodle salad!!!!!!

PM me anytime...for any reason...I will help as much as I can through my own experience...okay! Your doing an amazing thing to help yourself......We know because we did it too...

Life is happening to you in all sorts of ways now....You did not eat a cake today..You missed some meals...Drink a Protein shake and have some dense protein 30 min. after... should get you through the night.....I can think of way worse things to be upset about... @@skinnygirlwithin Think about the weekend coming up about Wednesday and then plan for it.....Your doing great...Stop tripping yourself up.... We all have good days and bad days. But if it is always the weekend...Plan, plan and plan for it..okay!!!!!67 lbs...phantasmagoria!!!!!!!!!

Your standing out now in a good way. and as a bonus...Your getting healthier and stronger and more energy as you go along.! Working with inner city kids must be quite the task. But rewarding eh? I have seen the movies based on true stories. But I always imagined that they were tame rather then true reality... I admire your strength not only in regards to your journey. But also your fortitude for teaching children whop really need you.

If I could like this comment 100 times. It would not be enough...you are so right.....on all accounts!!!! Thanks for your wise input!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will find both opinions of this forum... Personally...I eat the yolk as well. i can only put so much in my body and if I am going to eat an egg..Well it is all going down to help with the Protein intake.. That is just how I feel about it.

They cut up to 85 % of your stomach out. Do you really think that your system is going to take that well. It is going to take time for all the crap to leave your system that they put in there, swelling to go down and healing is a major time consuming effort. you have to give your body some rest and keep on the program and look forward. Get the scale out of the equation and wait a bit before you weigh yourself again...There is no reason why you can't lose the weight. Trust your sleeve by doing what you are supposed to do and it will come off. K

Better then hiding the scale. take it outside and hit it as hard as you can with a sledge hammer or ax Trust me...we have addictions and it is very common to trade one for another.....Obsession with all healthy natural foods. size, numbers, so on and so on. Part of this program is to fix your head. You are not ready for the scale because you can't stay off of it. I am sure that I have only weighed myself maybe 6 or 7 times in 17 months. Every weigh in I lost weight...I did not think of numbers I only looked at sizes...I watched how my clothes fit and judged from there. It was a little nerve wracking to even go on the scales when I was required to. But you know...It has worked for me..I stick to the program most of the time and can feel my body changing.... I remember that I was stuck on size 20 for what I felt was forever but I still did not dust off the scale....It took years to put my weight on and I never used a scale then..Why now? I do drink tea. I have 2 cups a day no sugar and a little milk. Soon I won't because it is getting warmer here. So I will look for other things to drink. I also drink low calorie hot chocolate. That just makes me think I am cheating and I am not. Take my advise...Smash that scale!!!!

no. they never gave me that. i am actually glad, it sounded fricking scary. but i have issues with hydration, i just came home tonight from the ER, had to get a bag of Fluid cuz i was dizzy and sick which = dehydration. Ana..how many times have I encouraged you to drink G2 Gatorade. It helps keep your electrolytes up and will make your trips to the ER disappear. 17 months later and I still drink 1/2 of a bottle diluted with Water and I can feel it if I don't drink it..Oh yes I get my 64 oz of water in as well. But that really makes a difference.

WHAT GOES ON IN THE BACK YARD If you enjoy watching wildlife in slow motion this is really cool. Enjoy! Be sure to have your sound turned on (and watch it in HD, full screen). The hummingbird doing rolls chasing a bee is not to be missed. Be sure to watch closely (around 2 min 40 sec) and check out the BABY BAT under its mother. Unreal!!! If you never knew what goes on in the garden when you aren't paying attention, watch this - some of the finest photography you will ever see. http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

See i told my doctor how much i was taking in and he said that was good keep it under a 1000 and i do exercise usual 3 times a wk. But i better talk to a nutritionist that deals with what we had. I dont want to shut down. I try do everything possible lose weight but dont want to hurt myself either. Thank you for all your help. Okay so to sum it up then basical that lil burger was not a bad thing me eating the whole thing at my stage? It just was weird cause it was the first time ever i finish that amt usual i take 3 bites and done. But i did take my time and i didnt hurt, or feel sick in anyway. So i feel better abt it. But now i real need to look into this whole calorie thing. Big thank you guys A lot of us are geared to numbers and dates. That is the wrong way to see this trek we are taking. This is a life long learning, changing, building adventure. And although the first 6-8 months is the honeymoon period does not mean that if you don't have all your weight lost before then that you can't lose more. Before surgery our metabolisms were shot. After surgery and the more active we become the better that part comes. now the danger is that if you do not eat enough your body will scream to a halt to protect itself. When it feels threatened the body will react. By eating dense Proteins and drinking our Water and complex carbs, the body will feel safe and continue to lose. O am not saying that it will nave take a break but your body has to catch up to what we are doing to it.... 1000 calories is minimal...Some are on 1200 or even 1500. And still losing. you lose upwards to 400-500 calories when working out. That leaves your body with 300 to live on...Your body says no I'm starving and you stop losing...... Amazing eh how we are made...A massive city with everything connected to one another and if something goes wrong the city will take action until it is fixed....love it!!!!

I would say..Me lose weight..nah! I look like I always did...You however are looking a little unsettling! lol Oh RJ your too much!!LOLOLOLOLOLOL

@@feedyoureye Look at you..awesome!!!!!!!! hotty! Go girl go!!!!!

In the begining i didnt feel a fullness only a pressure and i knew i had enough. And the hamburg was the size of one u would get in a happy meal so it wasnt real big hamburg. And no it was not from McDonnell either.lol. it was a home made one. My biggest problem is i dont eat many small meals which i need to change. But when i do eat i never take in anymore then 800 calories in 24 hrs.More days its usual 650-680 cals . But i was lil scared cause that was first time i could finish a hamburg even of that size. In no way do i want to push or expand the amt of food i can eat I figured it had to be a little burger. You would have thrown up otherwise for sure or at least gagged on it. If you are only taking in 600-700 calories. Your body is going to go to shut you down to protect itself. You really need around 900-1000 unless you are exercising then you need more.

Bun and everything...wow...17 months out and I can only take down a half of a hamburger. Ask yourself! Are you reading your sleeve? Anytime, are you sneezing or runny nose while eating. Some people get hick-cups. Are you taking the time to eat tiny bites and then swallowing when the bite is really mushy?... Do you stop half way through and take a break to listen to your sleeve? To see where you are in the full area. Congratulations on your success so far.....

@@MichiganChic your a stunner! but I know where you are coming from. I have driven my husband and daughter to extremes because of the same question. They now don't answer. They just walk away...They are tired of it... The thing is we may quite possibly see ourselves as fat for the rest of our lives. My nut calls it a fat head...Our brains may never get to the point where we say..I made it..Why would we. food was and is an addiction that we have to be aware of the rest of our lives like alcoholism. We can't take it for granted that we have it whipped.. That said we don't want to go the other way and end up in treatment for Anorexia or Bulimia. My daughter works with a couple of patients that have had WLS and have gone the other way. They traded one addiction for another. Once we get to goal the point is to retrain ourselves to maintenance. The thrill of losing is over. It is so hard to handle the changes. And that is why we need to change the way we think... I am working on it..You need to work on it too!!!!!!

This is what remained of my delicious breakfast! One sneeze and eating is over!

You might want to try sugar free syrup - tastes similar and will minimize your possibility of dumping No sugar free syrup for me....yuk! I can only eat a small pancake and 1 tiny sausage..no way am I ruining it with sugar free anything! I have dumped before but not with this...The worst thing is ice cream for me..It kills me.. But the reason I can dump is because I have both. A bypass and sleeve......

Yum..tomorrow is pancake and bacon breakfast..going to eat a normal one with butter and syrup..But a lean sausage....LOL I have it once in a while and I like it bad..i eat everything else so damn healthy.....Looking forward to my little treat! I know..don't care..lol doing it anyway!

I am starting to learn to try to just walk away..It is hard though I have been picked on so much because of my weight and I just thought that if I lost it the issues of this would be gone... But no there is always some one out there who has an opinion. Whether kind or not! I did not even have a bypass. But you know what I didn't enlighten her either. I just sulked and felt like I need to get some very high turtleneck shirts......

Not nice! I have 2 friends who are tiny ( slim ) and they wear clothes that are children's sizes and one wears shoes children's sizes. Both find it difficult to find clothes that look like an adult can wear them but both of them are proud as can be about being small...Believe me they rub it in all the time..like...this is too big for me...it would definitely be too small for you! It sure can be rough in the real world!

All I know is it was a RN that left sponges and strips of gauze in my bed sore and it healed over and I started to get abscesses and needed surgery to remove it. It was not a nurses assistant which here in Canada we call an LPN. Now where I had WLS you could not tell the difference who was who. They melded into one another and respected each other as helpers. When RN's mouth off about being better the LPN's I always say that it was one of those 4 year schooled nurses that almost killed me. There is in all professions good and bad!

Was told this week that I was gaunt and had too much neck skin hanging and that is why she knew I had gastric bypass.. What the H*ll?...Now that could be a rant! People say the damndist things don't they?! Time to hide in the closet till plastics can fix my ugly ass!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with your assessment. I will agree to disagree. I am glad you were honest. I like honesty and you are okay as well as far as I think....Better days a head kid...Hoping all the success in the world for you!