JosieMac

Thanks everybody, I can not wait to stop sweating, bring on the cold lol !!
I have a handsome man to keep me warm ( wink wink)
Josie

Thanks everybody, I can not wait to stop sweating, bring on the cold lol !!
I have a handsome man to keep me warm ( wink wink)
Josie

I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm excited about my weight loss so far. I am very happy about my decision to have VSG. I feel so much better. I'm thoroughly enjoying this process.
Here are some pics.
This first pic is me a couple years ago at nearly my highest weight of 274 (on the left) and me a couple weeks ago at around 230 (on the right).

This pic is me in May of 2012 at my highest weight of 274 (on the left) and me yesterday at 227 (on the right)

I'm 5 pounds from goal... 5 months out. Here are my progress pigcs

Hooray! Mom and I made it home safe! We landed in Pittsburgh around 2AM and I made it home around 4:30am. Shower and then woke up around 2PM. Slept like a rock. I'm so happy to be home!
Thank you all for the prayers and support!
Amanda Rae

Just made my 2 month post op date. I've lost 50 Ibs so far. Can't believe it, I finally looked at some pictures of myself to see if there really is a difference. (Been told by many that I look like I've lost some weight). Couldn't believe the difference just two months has made. Can't wait and see what the up coming months have to hold. Have no regrets about my sleeve, couldn't be more happier. So decided I would post a couple of pics.

Wifi at Mi Doctor Hospital is on the back of all doors and is free and worked fine while we were there. The Marriott offers one code for 1 device per day so you will pay extra if your guest wants wifi on a seperate device.
Having a translator from English to Spanish already installed on my cell phone and ipad did come in handy, especially with the night nurses at the hospital, they were very kind but sometimes it made things a little speedier but for the most part the language barrier was no biggie, I just liked being able to be exactly sure what was said.
There were 2 cafes for guest to buy food, one in the main lobby and one on the 4th floor of the hospital.
The Marriott has room service which once you convert it, it the most inexpensive room service menu ever. You are given 3 broths, 2 Popsicles, and 3 bottled waters per day at the hotel via room service ( don't forget to tip), at least in my package I was thru Ready4 A Change.com
Tipping: have singles handy... I brought 50.00 in small bills, 5s and 1s and it was nice to tip the luggage guy, room service when my broth came, my drivers, and other assorted people and hey, it is part of their income and they are so cordial and take good care of you, I haven't even used all the 50.00 and I have been here 4 days. So I thought I'd throw that in.
Just because so many people, employees and guests are floating around the hospital, you do have a in room safe and we were encouraged SEVERAL time by many staff to use it, I'm guessing past issues,....? so all of our valuables went in the safe with no issues.
My biggest tip: I arrived early in the day to San Diego and opted for same day surgery and so, so glad I did.
With my package, I get 2 night hospital stay and 3 night hotel and after speaking with some people who had 1 hotel night first then 2 hospital then back to hotel.. They said they would have rather had 2 hospital, then 3 hotel.
My reason for this is because I went straight to the hospital, got checked in, got surgery over with, got the major medical issues out of the way and now I have 3 uninterrupted days in a relaxing hotel to come and go as I please, rather than get to hotel, then pack all back up then to hospital only to pack up back to the hotel...
So I had less hassle, less tipping, more relaxing time, surgery was out of the way and more like a vacation, hotel is much more comfy than hospital (which wasnt bad just much more comfy) so if at all possible, I would opt for the earlier flight in, my flight arrived at 11:00am and get it over with then relax in these amazing hotel beds, probably my biggest suggestion!!
No hair dryer at the hospital, on my second day I could have used one, but no biggie, certainly was nice to use once I got to the Marriott.
For the hospital, I recommend you bring a eye mask for sleeping, many rooms face the sun and since you have been up all night at the hospital from getting shots and being checked on constantly, which is good, you will want a sleeping mask for during the day at the hospital for naps, the rooms are BRIGHT, thin blinds and medicine makes you even more sensitive. Ear plugs were given to me for myself and my guest thru Melissa, the on site coordinator with Ready4Achange, they do not miss a beat!
The hospital sits near a major interstate, plan on wearing your earplugs to drownd out the ridiculous morning traffic honking which is uber obnoxious!! And so many car alarms will go off, crazy loud place even at the hotel, just get used to it, part of the charm of the town,
Sometimes things do not go on USA time crunch schedule, so be patient, we are in Mexico and they are on "Mexican Time" which many Americans I am finding could be a little speedier and I realize how spoiled we are. I have heard from other sleevers they do not think the Mexicans are fast, I can say this has been a very caring environment and I am realizing how Whiney some sound from the USA, just saying!
I have wanted for nothing and everything to me has come at great speed and basically within a time frame acceptable for what it was. When it comes to medicines and medical issues, they were way ahead of my USA schedule and perfect.
I have read where some people wanted room service faster, well most hotel room service is slow but when they did come, very cordial and friendly and everything was present. All I am saying is prepare for not as swift of a response sometimes for something's as we get in the US, I have had a great experience and embraced a new culture ( nothing like home though!)
Today we are going shopping....will post more ideas later.

This is a little rant.
I went to my doctor 1 week out for the routine post-surgery check. She was talking about my daughter's wedding, and she said, "you are going to look so good for her wedding!" I replied, "what do you mean? I look really good now!"
I am a beautiful girl (my husband tells me this everyday!). I was before the surgery. I am now after surgery - over 50 lbs lighter. I realize that I look "better". I do. But this surgery isn't a guaranteed fix to everyone's self esteem. If you had really low self esteem before surgery, losing weight may or may not fix it. If all of your self esteem issues were related to your weight, then maybe it will. If you have been skinny before and had low self esteem issues then...chances are you will have self esteem issues after your weight loss. Unless you work on fixing them!
At my heaviest, I always knew skinny girls that I had more confidence than.
You are beautiful, too! In all honesty....this forum is loaded with beautiful girls at all sizes. No matter where you are in the weight loss journey, embrace who you are at this moment and take a minute to feel beautiful and amazing. Don't wait until all the weight is off before you start loving yourself. Do it now.
That is all.

Next of luck, thanks for sharing the pics !!

Amanda you have become a true inspiration to myself as well as many others...you are always positive and constantly making me laugh...you make my nervousness and anxiety of all of this unknown calm down tremendously...thank you for all of your posts and being my inspiration!!

You look stunning, keep up the good work

Well I have to say I'm truely amazed at my wieght loss so far. I am 54lbs down since surgery and 77lbs since I started the pre op diet on December 28th. The first pic is 2 days post op and the second is today 2 months post op. It's a great start to my new life!!

way to go !!

My name is Josie and I am to a stalker lol

My name is Josie and I am to a stalker lol

Everyone in unison......................"Welcome Josie!"

I agree with you all! I know I'm not gonna miss these days, bc nothing has really changed for me over the past few years bc of it. Failed diets and overeating until I'm full is the story of my life. I havnt been under 200 pounds since elementary school. My peak was 270, I lost 60 pounds on ephedra back in 2003, but the side effects were driving me insane. I gained 40 pounds back after a bad accident and been fluctuating between 230 and 250 ever since.
My biggest reason for the sleeve was my health. A cholesterol level of 240 for the past 6 years is on a highway to triple bypass and who knows what else.
I walk my dogs 3-5 days a week for at least 2 miles, and I usually get a little run in with 2 German shepherds. But... With eating out of control and never being full it's a loose...loose situation. I left this decision up to God, I prayed about it and God blessed me with the finances to pay for it. I feel no doubts about the sleeve, except waiting so long to get it.
I was scheduled for the lap band last year, but was scared away after hearing a lot of people were not successful with it and the side effects are just a nightmare.
I love this forum, THANK YOU ALL FOR HELPING EACH AND EVERYONE WITH ANSWERS, REPLIES AND SUPPORT!!! Y'ALL ARE EXQUISITELY AWESOME AND IM VERY THANKFUL OF EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

Hey everyone! I decided to create another post about my surgery so I can go in full details. However let me first DISCLOSE THAT I PAID FOR MY SURGERY AND I DON’T WORK WITH MY SURGEON by recommending patients or him.. I GAIN NOTHING! HOWEVER I DID MAKE DR. ILLAN PATIENTS A PRIVATE Facebook GROUP BEFORE I EVEN 100% Decided to go to him! Anyways since I felt the need to disclose that and get that out of the way…
Let’s get in details… We flew in Wednesday afternoon and were picked up as soon as we arrived at 5:09 PM. Our Driver took us straight to Omar. (WE ALL LOVE OMAR) We met him outside the hospital and he got our stuff and took us to his truck. He was so excited to meet us just like we were him. He was also ready to take us to dinner. We was very tired and I will be honest food well broth was the last thing on our minds.. LOL But we didn’t want to be rude and decline going, So we went. We were both so tired that we couldn’t really eat the broth. I will say it was different. It was the broth with the cherry and pineapple. Some people LOVE IT and others don’t. I didn’t feel either way I just wanted my Water LOL. After dinner we headed back to "Florence Hospital" where we got checked in for the night. We both agreed that the hospital was very nice..
Here are a few pictures I took…

The staff was awesome! I am sure our nurses will never forget me and Jessica that is for sure. We are both out going and talkative so they seemed to be very comfortable with us. (I am sure they thought we were nuts at times lol). Jessica and I were in separate rooms but of course we were ALWAYS TOGETHER. We was back and forth, if the nurse couldn’t find us in our room they knew we was in the other room, so they would come in there to give us our meds, and take vitals together.
I had requested to have surgery first on the 7th since I was leaving a day earlier than Jessica. I was scheduled at Noon. They started getting me ready and hooked up to IV at 6AM (Just like I was told the night before) I was also in surgery around the scheduled time also. Surgery went great! The funny thing is the Dr. and staff said the first thing out of my mouth when I came to was “HOW WAS MY LIVER”!! I was sooooooooooo worried about my liver because I did awful during pre-op and we only had to do pre-op a week LOL!! However he says my liver was very tiny and it made surgery so much easier so that is great! Then the 2nd thing I said was “MY THROAT HURTS!” I remember that. My throat was soooo sore. I don’t remember being put back in my room. I do remember waking up and Omar sitting in the chair and the first thing I ask was how Jessica was? She was already out of surgery but she was in pain. So I made him go check on her! LOL CAN YOU TELL I LOVE THIS GIRL! I remember the tightness I had in my chest. It wasn’t pain but it was uncomfortable! They said it was gas. Omar told me to take a Gas X strip and it HELPED! I also used my heating pad on my back shoulders and it helped a lot. Jessica says she came in to see me after I was put in my room. I don’t remember that at all. She also said I was getting upset about my throat LOL and something else..But she tried to calm me down but then they made her leave to go do her surgery haha. So that whole afternoon after surgery is a blur. That night I was better and feeling great so I walked to see Jessica. She was in tons of pain and was throwing up. She also had her gallbladder out so we are thinking that is why she was in pain. I was feeling great just some gas. Omar also gave us a picture of our stomach.. Here is mine..

The next morning 3/8: I was still feeling great! It just was uncomfortable when I ate my ice chips or laid flat down. I had taken a shower and put back the hospital gown as requested by the nurse. The DR. Came in and check on me and said everything looked great! He has the best bed side manner of any DR. I have ever been to. Plus he is a HOTTIE to say the least! The rest of day we just chilled. Omar told us to be up and ready to go at 9am the next morning for our leak test.
3/9… I was up and ready! I felt great! You couldn’t tell me I just had surgery if I didn’t know. I took my shower, put my make up on and had all my things packed. Then Jessica came in my room and she chilled in my bed while I was in the chair. She still wasn’t 100% but better. The Dr and Omar came in at 9 and happy to see how well I was doing. He took Jessica’s drain out while there. I didn’t have a drain thankfully!! After she got her drain out she felt great!! So we were ready to go. Omar told us to wait while he took our bags and pulled to the front. Well we thought we would just meet him outside so we just walked out of the hospital. LOL when he came back he was like y’all were supposed to wait!! They have to bring you out in a wheelchair. We were like but we are able to walk!! He just laughed and went in to give the hospital our slips letting them know we are officially discharged.
We then went for our swallow test! That had to be the worst part of the whole thing. (People look at me crazy when I say this but for me it’s the truth LOL) That is the nastiest stuff ever! They all seemed to find me funny for some odd reason when doing my test! They wanted me to drink that junk in one gulp. GROSS I couldn’t do it. Then I had it in my mouth and couldn’t swallow. I DON’T know why I held it in my mouth. It just made it worse LOL but then I swallowed but since I didn’t take it in one gulp I had another sip!! UCKKK so anyways I had no leaks YAY but I had a lot of gas bubbles. Then it was Jessica’s turn she did ok. Omar told her not to do like I did haha..She took hers all in one gulp but she hated it also. I can’t explain the taste. She says cleaner but umm I have never tasted cleaner so I don’t know.
After that we were off to the Dietitian’s office. She went over what to eat and what not. She also took our measurements and told us what our “goal weight” should be. Her goal weights seem to be higher than what the US dr’s say but hey I will take it. Plus she said I was “thick” and Jessica was tall so that was also taken in consideration. After that we went to the hotel to get checked in. We also met up with the other patient and his wife. We both loved them they are an older couple and just a breath of fresh air. Here are a few pictures of the hotel… ( we had private rooms but we decided to change it to just one room, it would have just been a waste LOL)

We then all went for lunch. THAT BROTH WAS AMAZING!! I have never liked broth but this was LOVELY! However I couldn’t eat a lot of it YAY! After we left our full shopping day started! Omar is a champ! He took us everywhere. He also explained what certain things were and their meanings. We were all getting tired and we knew Omar needed to go check in at the hospital so we told him we were ready. He gets in no rush that’s for sure. He is so pleasant. However the other patient and his wife needed to eat dinner. I and Jessica Didn’t want anything to eat plus we had our broth from lunch in our room and Omar bought us Jello and tons of drinks so we were good. So he brought us back to our room before taking them to dinner. He told me he would be back at 8am with Dr Illan and I needed to be ready to walk out at 9 am to go to the airport. However we found out our air didn’t work!! Oh that was not going to cut it lol so the office staff moved us to another room. After getting settled in that room we were ready to just go to bed! I think we had lights out at 9:30 needless to say we both slept very well that night.
3/10 Time changed last night. I had told my husband to call me at 8 AM My Time well he called me 8am HIS TIME EST! I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I just got up and started getting ready. Jessica got up with me and we chatted as always. We are never out of words it seems LOL. We also tried text Omar that we changed rooms but our phones didn’t seem to text good there. So a little after 8 our room phone is ringing! It’s Omar LOL he was like I didn’t know yall changed rooms! I have been beating on the other door with my hands full of water HAHA! He was like I am coming your way now. Him and the Dr Came and made sure I was ok to leave. He also explained that they are just an email and phone call away if I needed them. I hugged them both. I am embarrassed to admit I had tears in my eyes! It felt like I was leaving my best friends. I can’t say enough about either of them. I know deep in my heart they were the perfect ones for ME! I am 1000% happy with the care and service. Let me add I didn’t go to him because his price was lower. I was almost about to pay 5,550 so money was never the issue here. Plus my INSURANCE COVERS IT. I JUST DIDN’T WANT TO WAIT ANY LONGER and appeal! (I knew insurance would approve after my appeal because the issue was just missing info I HAD) Plus I felt the connection when I talked to them both for the first time.
Anyways, The Dr Left and Omar told me he would be back in 20 mins. to get my bags. He came and got my bags and we had a private convo. OMAR IS THE BEST HANDS DOWN! Then I noticed the other patient and the driver was waiting for ME! So I am like OH NO I GOTTA GO! I hugged him and was LIKE I WILL CALL YOU! ( I TALK WAY TO MUCH) LOL, so we are leaving the hotel I can’t find my iPhone! I am freaking out! OH NO TURN AROUND I say. I left my phone. The driver stops and turns then ask is it a IPhone? I say yes, He is like you had it in your hands LOL OMG IT WAS ON THE SEAT! I say OK LETS GET OUT OF HERE so we are on our way. We talk the whole way. The couple with me is like myself. “Never meets a stranger”. The line to the boarder was CRAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Thankfully we were in the medical Line so we didn’t wait at all! They had their passports and I didn’t. I was scared the whole time. I just knew they were going to make me the exception LOL. However that was not the case. They ask us the reason there and if we had alcohol and a list of other stuff. Which we didn’t, so we were on our way. We didn’t even get out of the truck and they didn’t even look in our bags.
Now that I am home I feel normal. I have been talking to a lot of people in my private messages and I tell them if I didn’t see my stomach I wouldn’t think I had surgery! I have had no restrictions with drinking. I can drink normally so I am having no issue getting water in. My issue is broth. I don’t do well with the warm stuff! Why would that be?
* I WILL BE ADDING ALL PICTURES IN MY GALLERY SO CHECK THEM OUT LATER*

38 lbs lost in 10 weeks

I'm scheduled for surgery in two weeks in Louisiana with Dr. Treen. I'm paying it all myself. All in including complication insurance is $14,200. I'm too scared to go to mexico. My husband had it here a year ago and did great! 100lbs

Here's mine, down 147lbs so far.

65kg lost... 9 months post op

Size 14 from size 18!!
Size 14 Jeans and 3' inch heels today on my way to the beauty shop! I feel great!

So I am a couple days past my 4 month mark and so far so good, although, as expected, the losses are slowing. Down to about 2 lbs per week. I started at 317, was 205 lbs this morning. Thats 50 lbs pre-op from the beginning of March through the end of July, including the 2 week pre-op diet that shed 20 of thos 50, then another 62 lbs so far post-op. I feel good and have had a lot of people tell me not to lose more but I still want to get to my goal of 185 by the 6 month mark. Not sure if I can get there with the slow pace but close is good enough for me!!!
The first pic is a picture of me at my sister in law's wedding in the last week of February and this is me just a few min ago in my office. I actually had a full head of Fabio hair when I started the program....haha, obviously I am kidding!

This is me currently (as of about 15 min ago)

I confess...
- I haven't been to the gym in a month.
- I have weighed myself everyday this week (normally only 1-2x a week) because I'm SSSOOO close to the century club!
- I get really irritated with some people's "holier than thou" preachy, opinionated attitudes on this site which makes me not post for fear of judgment and ridicule. Why can't we just all get along???
- I'm really sad about getting rid of all of my clothes. All I see is wasted $$$ (because I have A LOT of clothes).
- I've only told a few close friends this... I plan on staying single during this journey so I can see what kind of "ass I can pull" and truly enjoy the attention I get!