Pixie Dust

Aww...I'm sorry that your surgery had to be postponed, but you know, I'm a BIG believer that everything happens for a reason. May is only a month & a half away! Hang in there! If it makes you feel any better, I have NO CLUE yet when my surgery will be! I have my psych eval tomorrow & my medical clearance appt on Wed. My exercise appt isn't until mid April sometime. The worst part is that if they can't do my surgery over the summer, I'll either have to wait till NEXT summer (oh please dear Lord, don't let that happen to me) or I'll look into going thru a different hospital program. EEK!! Good luck to you!!

You are absolutely **gorgeous!!!** Just look at you!!!! I hope very soon you will see yourself the way others do because you're awesome! You look younger too! God bless you & help you continue on your special journey. While I'm at it, God bless me as well to have the strength you have found to lose those nasty 100 lbs & look half as pretty as you!!!

Hi VegasgalIVS, Welcome to the forum & I'm new too here! I am learning way more here than I did in that 1 hour seminar I attended. I would have asked way more questions but I didn't know what to ask, but as the days go by & I read more here, I'm learning to ask more questions & hopefully will be more prepared! So excited for your enthusiasm! You sound like you're ready to become a "post op poster!" Please continue to share your journey because you're helping the newbies like me!! Wishing you all the best!

I think I want to go to your doctor afterall! My doc wants me on a liquid diet for one week prior to surgery! I really have no idea at all how I will do that...especially since when I don't eat on time, I get really shakey & feel like I'm going to pass out. I have type 2 diabetes, but with watching my carb intake & taking the oral medication, I'm actually testing normal (5.9) but if I go without eating too long, I nearly pass out, after getting all shakey & irritable & nothing I say makes sense. You're lucky, even tho it's only 1000 calories, it's still FOOD! Good luck on your surgery. I'm sure you'll do fine. Maybe the diet each doctor orders for this patients, depends on how obese they are? I wonder if that's a possibility?

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself as "Pixie Dust." I just attended my first seminar in making a decision which WLS is best for me. I have decided on the Sleeve. I had a one-on-one with a Bariatric Nurse yesterday & have an appt with my family doc on Friday (to renew my meds), so will bring the blood work order I received from the nurse, to see if my doc would like to add anything else to it, since he sends me every 6 months for lab work. Then hopefully have my blood work done on Saturday morn. Monday I go for my psych eval...it was just moved up from from a month from now, since I've made it clear that I need my surgery sometime in the summer time due to my children's school schedule. If I can't have surgery this summer, either I will go to another hospital in search of a summer appt or wait till the following summer. Please wish me luck.! Next month I have an appt with a physical therapist to show me which exercises I can do safely due to my knee being bone on bone & needs to be replaced (but holding off as long as I can!) I've been overweight most of my life, but not morbidly obese like I am now. In my early 30's I lost about 100 lbs on WW, which made me feel great & look great. Unfortunately, over the years, I've added almost the entire amount back. I have tried to diet but it's so much harder to lose weight the older you get & I'm done with the struggle. I suppose after surgery, I'll have a different type of struggle, like trying to figure out what I can eat safely & trying to stick with healthy foods. My child with autism keeps begging me to lose weight so I won't die. How about that for a reality check? So I have no choice but to do this. I won't lie, I'm very scared regarding the surgery. I'm scared if I will feel a lot of pain, if I end up with a blood clot, if I can't cope with my lifestyle change. What will I do as I'm an emotional eater? How will it feel cooking for my family when I can't eat (I'm thinking liquid diet here, let alone post surgery!) ? Are these normal fears? Am I even too old to do this?? I'm in my early 50's. I've also wondered "why didn't I do this sooner" as I see pics of people on this site who have had the surgery done. Will I have regrets for any reason? Guess that about sums me up! If anyone has any advice, please share it with me! ~ Peace

I'll come back later & reread this entire thread. I hope I responded & thanked everyone. It really meant a lot to me to read all your encouragement & your stories! It gives me hope! Thank you for making me feel welcomed here, I really appreciate it!

Thank you so much for your advice Recycled! I will check out the site later! So you've already done your knees? I'm afraid of having them done at this weight because I just know it will take longer to recover & with a young family, I just can't be down that long. Hoping the losing weight part will buy me an additional year before having to do knee replacement but who knows? Just hoping for my younger son to be a bit more independent before going thru the knee surgery. I think having people help me will be easier once I'm down some weight too. I only have my own family to rely on, as we have no one near me to help. My family lives in Europe. Thank you for responding & sharing! God Bless!

Thank you sunnymyway! I love how positive you are! I hope I can gain at least 10 years having this surgery. I don't think I'll get to see grandchildren but I do hope to see my little one (age 11) be an adult & to be able to somewhat care for himself. Thankfully, I do have a younger husband but who knows how life will play out. He does take care of himself now tho. He works for Blue Cross Blue Shield & the company does a lot to promote health & well being at work & he's jumped on the bandwagon! They offer small perks if you walk so much in a month or lose weight or drink so much Water in a day, etc..., & he's very competitive so he's won every single promotion they've done! He started wearing our 17 y/o son's Aeropostale jeans! LOL! The best part is that my 17 y/o didn't like sharing his jeans, so he started losing weight too (he probably needs to trim down about 20 lbs) & he's doing great so far by cutting portions, cutting out soda, & he gets plenty of exercise at work pushing carts at a neighborhood grocery store. So now it's just me & the little man who need to lose weight! Good luck to you too!!!

Thank you ruthie35! Yes, I do understand about the thought of dying when it comes to my kids. Especially since my little guy is autistic & he relies on me so much! He's the one that has said to me countless times "please mommy, can you lose some weight because I'm afraid you're going to die!" I also remember what it was like growing up without my father since he died at age 52 & I was only 8. He was obese too (but nothing like me) & he smoked. I'm up for rockin' that sleeve with you girl!! Lets give each other encouragement! God Bless you!

Haha! What a cute response SpaceDust! Who knows??? I'm hoping that since everyone who finds out our ages, tells me I look younger than my husband (he's prematurely gray & he's lost a lot of hair), that they will always say that, but I think of a cousin who lost around 50 lbs on WW & I ran into her at costco one day & was shocked at how much older she looked! Of course, since then, she's regained it all but naturally I do worry about how I'll look afterward too! Seems funny cause I should worry about how horrible I look now at nearly 300 lbs! LOL! I guess I just got used to myself looking like this! Well, I guess we "cougars" best get ourselves nice & healthy so we can be with our "prey" for as many years as life gives us! Hehe....

Hi Bridgwil59! Glad to see another one my age going thru this! I guess you understand me having been up & down on the weight cycle! I've lost so much weight over my lifetime but keeping it off is a whole other game plan! Each time I'd say that I'd NEVER regain it since it felt so much better than anything tasted. Yeah...right! How did you do immediately post op? I worry about being my age & so obese that I may not fair well during or after the surgery. Thank you for responding & so happy for your 30 lb loss already! That's 120 sticks of butter! Just picture it!! WOW!!

OMGoodness, you're so beautiful, I don't think you have anything to worry about! Plus 35 is a loooooooong way from being 53! LOL! I keep beating myself up thinking why didn't I do this earlier??? Maybe a lot of my skin would have gone back to normal too, but who knows? Good luck to you rollargirl!

How do you cope with cooking for your family especially while only on liquids? I've just started the process & am nervous about when it's time to go on liquids. I don't have a surgery date yet. How will I cook for my family & then just sit & drink my dinner? Please tell me how you handled this?

I haven't met all my requirements yet nor do I have a date set yet but I too thought I'd try to start getting my water in & I've only been able to get down a couple of 16 oz bottles. I'm still drinking regular coffee (just 1 cup tho now) & I had a Diet Dr. Pepper with dinner. Like you, I said "tomorrow's a new day!"

What brands of yogurt are you all eating that's sugar free?

I have no idea what the answer is & I'm new to reading all about the Sleeve, but if you're feeling depressed since your surgery, maybe you should seek out a support group & if that doesn't seem to help, maybe an appt with a psychologist. Don't just continue on feeling more depressed as time passes. Possibly someone at a support group can tell you if it's normal & a short time frame this happens or maybe just talking it out with people who have gone thru the same thing can help you. Please, take care of yourself!

Wow...this board rocks! Thanks everyone! Okay, so chocolate is good & $4.99 is a good price for four 11 oz containers. Well then, I'll try to buy a couple (geez, have to squeeze extra $$ from the grocery money)! I actually did buy the vanilla ~ I normally think vanilla is boring but thought maybe I could just add a 1/4 tspn of Banana or Coconut extract. Wonder if that would be okay to do?? I will def buy the chocolate. Strawberry not so great huh? Well, maybe I'll just stick with chocolate. What could be so bad about chocolate??

Hmmm...maybe I'm wrong but I thought ALL sleevers got 5 incisions? One is bigger than all the rest because they pull your stomach out thru one particular incision.

Oh nooooooo.....that's what I'm so worried about, the HUNGER while on the pre-op liquid diet! So I'm assuming those protein shakes don't really fill any gap in the tummy? I'm gonna die, I just know it. Plus I'll still be cooking for my family. Four more days dat_sweetmami...I hope it goes by fast for you! Good luck on your journey!

My jaw dropped looking at your before & after pics!!! Oh my heavens, I just can't get over how absolutely GORGEOUS you look! You were beautiful before too, but now ~ WOW!! You really do look younger & you're kind of giving me a glimpse of what I could look like someday! I weigh 4 pounds less than your highest weight & we're the same height, so I could look very much like you (well, except for your beautiful youthful face & my ugly OLD face) when I hit onederland too one day!!! God Bless you!!

Well, if I had ANY will power, I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place, so that's a dead muscle to me! I do like you're reasoning tho.

Now that's a good idea! Thanks!

OMGosh...that's soooooooooooo awesome aylalinngren! Silly question, but do they want you to poop before you leave the hospital? Peeing won't be a problem for me since I could go every 5 mins (TMI?? Sorry!) I'm thinking your incisions are itching because they're healing? So very happy for you! Please keep us informed on how you're progress is going post op!

Prayer is easy! I will say one for you as soon as I finish typing this! Will look forward to hearing how you did! It gives me courage.

Is Muscle Milk something you can drink yet? If so, maybe you can try that? I have heard that lots of people seem to like the Premier shakes & they are also sold at Costco. Wishing you the best!