TheGamer

The first shot is me in August 2012, somewhere at or above my highest recorded weight of 383. I'm wearing a size 5x (32/34 or thereabouts) pant and 4x top. The second is about two weeks after my October 22, 2012 procedure in early November. The last is me today at about 280. I'm wearing a size 22 pant and a 2x top. I don't even recognize the person in the mirror some days and I no longer dread it when people say I look like my pictures. I've still got a way to go, but I'm very pleased with the results a little more than four months out.

I'm pretty sure we've all tried everything. Personally I made sure to get my protein, water, vitamins, and I also took 5,000mg of biotin and zinc as well. Nothing helped. I'm in the middle of still losing tons of hair every day. My hair isn't thick, but it is curly, so that helps hide it a good bit. My hair was not quite shoulder length and it's stayed at about that with the loss. Hoping to be done with it soon.

Any reputable surgeon will be able to supply you with information on such basics as how many surgeries they've performed, what kinds of surgeries (VSG, RNY, LB, etc.), what kinds of complication rates and mortality rates they've had on what type of surgery, etc. Getting those statistics made me feel good about my choice in surgeon.

If it hasn't been one thing, it's been another. Cause and effect, chicken and egg, at this point there's no way to tell what's influencing what and the past seven weeks have been interesting to observe (if not frustrating to watch) develop. In early February I contracted norovirus, which left me unable to eat, and then unable to eat properly, for about three weeks. My weight loss did the predictable thing, losing nearly 20 pounds in a week before rebounding once I could keep food and liquid down. This is when I started losing my hair. While I know hair loss happens, it was timed perfectly with my sickness, which, in moments of irrationality, I blame on getting sick because I could not eat. By the time I felt better, I started experiencing what can only be described as crippling joint pain in my right ankle. Initially it made it difficult to get out of bed, and walking across the room was something I only did with crutches or other support. Then the pain spread. First to my other ankle, then my knees, then hips, shoulders, back... you get the picture. They don't know what's wrong with me, and I'm on high doses of anti-inflammatory medication while they try to sort it out. Now, several weeks from the start of the first symptoms, the pain isn't being kept in check by the medicine completely anymore. Needless to say, exercise is impossible. There are stress factors in my life, mostly job related, that have surely impacted my physical health and that are outside of my control to influence, which is its own issue. I hit my 100 pound loss, and have slowly dragged another five out of it, but it goes nowhere. My weight hasn't budged one way or the other in at least a month. It's a stall of epic proportions and I am forcing myself to be okay with the entire process. My weight loss has now taken a back seat to everything else I'm going through, and I have to be okay with that. But let's be honest, I'm not entirely okay with it or it wouldn't bother me. I pull out handfuls of hair every day and I'm thankful that it's curly because that helps hide it, but it's rough. I watch the scale go nowhere and I try to resist my inclination to cope with stress and frustration by eating. So much for the first six months being sunshine and roses all the way, but I thought that sharing my frustrations might help someone else who's in a similar place.

^ this. I wanted to be able to eat like a normal person. Long term the difference in weight loss between the two seems to be rather minimal.

Do a search for week 3 stall and you'll find that having a stall about... 3 weeks after surgery is pretty common.

You're losing five pounds a week, so just get a little perspective . It didn't come on overnight, it won't leave overnight. You're losing nearly a pound a day, so I don't think you should worry.

If you eat too much, you'll know. You may have excess saliva that you spit up, or even food. You'll feel discomfort when you overeat. Measure out what you're eating so that you know rather than "small" exactly how much you're having.

What a difference! You look so much younger!

I would consider it delicious. Because I'm still at that carnivore stage where it seems that all I eat for my meals is meat, I try to work veggies in at non-meat times. I wouldn't get to eat them otherwise. I suppose I've always looked at vegetables (prepared correctly or eaten raw with nothing like butter to up the calories) as a free food that I don't count, no matter when I eat it. But if you want to get technical, I suppose since it's vegetative matter, it is grazing >: D

The one thing I noticed is that it's not just my hair on top of my head, but my body hair in general is falling out, too. My arm hair and leg hair are both noticeably lighter in quantity and you can see where the new hair keeps growing in since body hair grows so much faster.

It's been absolutely haywire since surgery. I actually started immediately after surgery, even though I wasn't supposed to for another 2 weeks. I've been super heavy, super light, and even had a two week run (let me tell you how fun THAT was) post-op. I suppose it will settle down after my weight loss slows up a bit.

Indiana here, too. Very far south Indiana, but technically within state lines. I'm closer to Louisville than anything else, though, so I actually had my surgery done across the river at Baptist East.

Samples are invaluable. I know for me, what I could tolerate pre-op (Bariatric Advantage and a host of others) isn't what I could tolerate post-op, or even what I can tolerate now. My tastes have changed drastically in some regards and some drinks (Total Lean strawberry, I'm looking at YOU) were great before but are sickeningly sweet now.

You can follow everything and then some and you will still lose hair. I got all the protein, vitamins, minerals and even took supplements like biotin and zinc and I'm still losing my hair. Thankfully my hair is naturally curly so it's not terrible, but I can tell a huge difference when I try to pull it back or I don't bother to poof it out.

Yeah, I'd definitely get in touch with the doctor to see what's going on. You shouldn't be consuming enough to result in weight gain in such a short period, though the body does do strange things (you'll find THAT out post-sleeve when you gain weight on 600 calories XD) when it comes to weight loss.

Between this thread and the food and sex thread, we're covering a lot of fetish bases this morning.

I think another good assessment would be to find out how many calories you're consuming on the liquid diet. I know that on mine I was allowed 3-5 shakes a day (Bariatric Advantage), with each shake being between 150-250 calories, depending on what I added to it. That gave me a ballpark caloric intake of between 450 (at lowest) and 1250 (at highest) per day.

Hahaha! That's hilarious, though I don't know if I want anything whisked. Though that's leading me to a thought trail on what exactly that would entail... Okay, now that you changed your icon, your icon is looking at mine. Little bit awkward...

Amazing results!

It shouldn't be painful to swallow, imo. Feeling some restriction should be normal, but pain is different to me. If you're having pain even for soft foods, have you spoken with your doctor? I had a similar issue and it turned out that once they widened the opening between my esophagus and stomach, I had no more pain.

Thank you, all

As long as your iron levels are normal without it, I'd imagine a supplement isn't needed. With the protein heavy diet most of us have, I'd think we're getting in enough iron that way, though that's really just an uneducated guess. I've been iron deficiency anemic for most of my life, so taking iron was always something I did anyway.

There are some completely waterproof bandages available. I know Band-Aid makes one that's designed for larger wounds that I've used and they seal very tightly and stay totally dry.

Also, be aware that things like gas and stomach acid can really, really feel *just* like hunger. If you're not already on a PPI, consider trying that out. When I was having stomach acid issues due to my stricture, I was "hungry" even right after I ate. I could be completely full but I thought my body was still telling me I wanted food. After the stricture was fixed and my PPI in place, the hungry feeling stopped.