BigDaddyJoe

I also see there is a way to invite by email, so if you'd like to private message me your email address here, I will do that from within the group.

Some people had concerns about posting in public, as they don't want their friends to know they had surgery. Because of this, I have created a Facebook group and set the visibility to secret. Unfortunately, because of this, you need to be invited by a member of the group. I believe that I must be friends with someone to invite them. Not an ideal situation, but I'd like as many March sleevers to join without fear of being seen. I will close this page after today. Feel free to add me as a friend and I will invite you into the group. My name is Joseph Stahl, and my Facebook profile is similar to my picture here playing the trumpet. Feel free to unfriend me after you are a member of the group, unless you don't mind seeing political posts on Facebook.

I just sent you a request Nicole

I'm trying to figure out how to make a Facebook page private after it's been created, and having a hard time finding out how. I looked at creating a Facebook group, rather than a page, and there is a setting to make the group be secret (visible only to members), but in order to do that you have to add some of your friends as members, and I don't have any friends that should be members of the group. So I figured a page was the way to go. I'll keep looking for the answer and keep you all posted.

OK, I will make it private, I totally understand the concerns.

Thanks Kyeta, I'm doing phenomenal! I feel great, all negative effects of the surgery are now gone (gas pains, incision tightness, only being able to sleep on my back, etc). I'm down 33 lbs, started going to the gym yesterday, and can't wait to get to my goal!

OK, here it is: https://www.facebook.com/March2013Sleevers. I've left the group open for now. If anyone joins who shouldn't or gets disruptive, then I will change the settings. But I don't really anticipate any problems.

I'm doing it now, Kyeta. If anyone else would like to be an Admin, let me know.

How about "March 2013 Sleevers"?

Sure, I'll do it today and post a link here. Any ideas for a name?

I would do it if enough people say they want it.

Ok, I said I wasn't gonna weigh myself until Sunday, but I at least made it through the work week without weighing. I got on the scale, and was 2 lbs heavier than I was 5 days ago! How is that even possible, if I'm only getting in 400-500 calories a day? This is a lot of work, complying with all of the nutrition recommendations. I'm doing everything exactly as they say. Hard not to be upset or discouraged.

I agree with you all! I went 9 days without losing anything, and this morning was down 2 lbs. It will come off, it's not a linear process. I agree that in the past I would have given up and had a Big Mac meal by now. I'm so glad I have this tool that protects me from myself.

Well, after 4 days of being the exact same weight, I woke up this morning 5 lbs less than yesterday. Makes no sense to me, but I'll take it. That puts me at 249 lbs, 25 less than my pre op high of 274. I've decided to start weighing myself only once a week. It won't be easy, but obsessing over the scale can be counterproductive. I just needed to see it move after being the same for 4 days. Since I weighed in this morning, I guess I'll make Sunday my day.

I haven't posted in a little while, mostly because things have been going great, and there hasn't been anything really newsworthy. On Thursday, March 28, I went for my 3 week post op follow up. They have me down 26 lbs, but to me it is 31 lbs. I think their scale was off on my first visit by 5 lbs. I weighed 274 lbs on my first visit with clothes on, and also weighed 274 at home with no clothes. Every visit since then, I've been exactly 5 lbs more at the office than on the home scale. So, according to them, I started at 274 and now weigh 248, for a total weight loss of 26 lbs. But according to the home scale, I started at 274 and now weigh 243, for a total weight loss of 31 lbs. They are very happy with the 26 lbs, and said I can start eating small pieces of solid food, and have no more restrictions on lifting or exercise. 26 lbs or 31 lbs, I'm happy, even though I've only lost one lb in the last week. I feel like I am almost doing TOO good, if that makes any sense. The other night I cooked up a Freschetta pizza for the kids, and I was able to eat a very small piece. And tonight for Easter dinner, I was able to eat very small quantities of ham, mashed potatoes, corn, Mac & cheese, creamed spinach, with zero issues. It doesn't seem right, from reading other people's posts, that I should be able to eat these things, especially at only 3 weeks post op.

Ok, so I posted last night all upset because I gained 2 lbs in 5 days. I went to bed weighing 251. I woke up this morning and weighed myself again, and I weighed 244. I have no idea how it is possible to lose 7 lbs in my sleep. I do feel better though, knowing that I am moving in the right direction. Maybe it was punishment for not waiting a full week to weigh myself like I said I was going to.

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/blog/2259-my-journey/

My wife is scheduled to be sleeved in April, so she is a month behind me. She seems convinced that our marriage is going to be affected by our weight loss. We've seen people's personalities change as a result of weight loss surgery, and we've even seen it destroy a couple marriages. In each of those cases, it was only one person who had the surgery, and their newfound confidence from their new bodies led to them going out with friends more often, and tore the marriages apart. My wife and I have been married for almost 13 years now, and together for 17. We have three amazing children. We've endured some crap in those 17 years, and nothing has torn us apart to this point. I don't see it being an issue, and was surprised when she would keep bringing it up. But I'm afraid that she is so convinced of it, and is looking for any tiny change in my personality as proof, that it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. We were both skinny when we met, right around our goal weights we'd like to achieve now. She was always insecure back then, even though she is a gorgeous woman and I'm the one who had reasons to be insecure. In a way, I was relieved to be heavy, because no one would want me, so her insecurity and jealousy basically went away. She has already pointed to a couple of things since surgery (just 8 days ago!) that she says are evidence of me 'changing'. The first is that she said that she "didn't feel the love" when she was there for me in the hospital. I'm not sure what she was expecting - the first day I felt like I was going to die, and wanted nothing but to sleep. The second thing is that I've said (apparently too many times) that she'll "understand soon". It is just that it is hard for me to verbalize all the things I'm going through, and I meant that she will understand it when she has her surgery. I meant it as a positive thing, that we would have shared experiences and be able to discuss them. I guess I didn't articulate it how it sounded in my head, and it just ended up annoying her and pissing her off. So I've been careful to avoid saying anything like that again. Also compounding things is the fact that I was more comfortable sleeping sitting up on the couch with my feet up on the ottoman. I have yet to make it a full night in our bed. I tell her it's not her, I just find it easier to sleep that way for now. Also compounding things is my lack of energy and irritability from the extremely low caloric intake. I hope that her negativity doesn't doom us. If I'm only 8 days out and we're having issues like this already, are we in trouble? Only time will tell, I suppose. But I sure hope not. I love her more than anything, and wouldn't ever want our children to suffer.

Great article, DayByDay, thanks for sharing!

GG, if you look at the rest of my blog, you'll see a post I made about my marriage. I'm more reserved, not outgoing, but I do play in a band. My wife is also getting the surgery, so we will be getting skinny together.

Thanks for the advice guys. I hear what you're all saying, but it is still upsetting knowing how hard this all is. I even told my wife last night that I "miss my stomach". I'd love to be able to eat a slice of pizza. I'm sure I'll look back and probably won't even remember this, and it does seem like a normal thing that people go through, so I won't stress about it too much. Someone in the forum said that as fat cells shrink, they fill up with water. Then, all of a sudden they let go of the water. True or not, I'm accepting that explanation, eases my mind a bit.

I had some tuna fish last night (chopped in the blender, of course). I had eaten some the night before with no problems, although it did give me a heavy feeling in my chest. Last night, I ate it, and got the heavy feeling in my chest and some bad hiccups/burps. I would get them in the past if I don't drink while eating, so figured it would be a problem after surgery because of not being able to eat and drink at the same time. I'm not sure if I'm just not ready to eat tuna yet, if I ate too much, or ate too fast. The hiccup burps got so bad that I took a couple sips of water hoping to make them go away, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to. It didn't help. A couple minutes later, I started getting a nauseous feeling, mouth started watering, etc, and I knew what was coming. So, I walked to the bathroom and vomited. I felt so much better afterwards. I guess I need to be more careful about what/how much/how fast I eat.

I'm getting in 64 oz of fluid. My blood pressure medication also has a water pill, so I doubt I'm retaining water.

I'm exactly 2 weeks post op. I lost 9 lbs on the 1 week pre op diet, then 9 days post op I was down a total of 25 lbs, meaning 16 lbs lost in the 9 days post op. I didn't weigh myself for 5 days, and weighed in tonight, and I actually gained 2 lbs in those 5 days! I'm following the nutrition recommendations to the letter, so I'm not sure what that's about. Kind of disheartening. It has been a lot of work to comply with everything, and I expected to see better results.

Starting the 4th day after surgery, I was the EXACT same weight (to the 10th of a pound) for 4 straight days. I got frustrated. Then the next morning I got on the scale and I was 5 lbs lighter! That's when I decided to stop weighing every day, because it is counterproductive. I'm going to weigh myself once a week, on Sunday mornings. Weight loss isn't a linear process, there are peaks and valleys.