Daydra

Sadly, I'm unemployed. Gladly, it started right before my surgery, so I've had some nice time off during recovery.
But usually I'm an editor/website manager. And a jewelry designer (the hobby that took over more than 40 hours a week of my life! )

No worries! When he's 20, he'll act like he's 8!

I am a pole dancer , but I kept breaking the pole so I got my sleeve lol JK I'm a domestic goddess .... For reals

I agree some people have no idea what we are going through nor do they care. I tell people how I had to do the pre op diet and you would think I was talking about how I starved on a desert island because no one except those that have been sleeved or banded knew what the heck the pre op diet was all about. I see a lot of people that want to loose a little weight and they say go ask Fred about a suicide or starvation diet. Some people ask me everyday they see me are you ok as if I look like I'm dying . Some ask how much are you eating you have lost a huge amount of weight, when was your surgery, are you healthy ? I work in a field where I'm constantly either getting disrespected or praised,it just depends on who is at work.

I crave salad, but I still can't eat raw veggies other than cucumber. I am really craving now is apples as it is apple season, but they don't sit well raw either. This summer I missed melon SO badly, but could not tolerate it.
I used to crave pizza but I've had the toppings a few times and it was disappointing so I am mostly over that.
I do love that my sweets cravings are so much lower than pre-surgery!!

Thank you! It's 32 lbs in about 2.5 months but I am very, very happy with that. Since pre-op, I'm averaging about 3.2 lbs a week which seems incredible. I sort of can't believe it.

Thank you for sharing! It is truly a great help to those of us that expect to have reconstructive plastics in the future. I am really glad that you have had a great experience so far and hope that your recovery continues to go well!
Best of luck and congratulations!

Having a couple thoughts on this. Disclaimer: You should always check with your doc if you are experiencing anything you're not sure about. You never know what might be indicative of something that needs to be checked out.
Having said that... I had some similar experiences. #1, if 500 cal is causing you to experience fatigue, that # of calories isn't sufficient to support you and you should consult with your doc on increasing your calories. We weigh about the same and I cannot function on 500 calories.
Are you experiencing any nausea? Getting a handle on that can help you get enough calories and Fluid to keep you going and reduce fatigue if that's the case.
Has the fatigue been causing you to spend more time in bed? I went about three weeks at that level or a little lower due to nausea and had so little energy that I was in bed every minute I could manage. The fatigue also got to the point where I very nearly passed out in the shower. Even on better days, I had to lay down for a little bit between my shower and getting dressed so I could rest.
Spending so much time in bed caused a backache for me that hurt more with deep breaths. My abdomen/torso also began to hurt with any deep breath. Mostly along my sides towards the front and around my diaphragm.
Are you having regular bowel movements? For me, whatever combination of circumstances were, it seemed like the backache was from being in bed so much, but I was also constipated. Once I managed to have a bowel movement (I was impacted. It took exlax, a suppository, an attempt at self digital extraction (that wasn't a good time...), and an enema to have a bowel movement and it was horrible...) the ache in my abdomen was gone, so I think for me that part of it was just being backed up and the discomfort of gas behind the blockage.
If you are having problems with gas, I read somewhere that the simethicone in the gasx or mylanta gas can't really help. They can only address gas in your upper digestive tract. Once the gas is in your intestines, it's a bit of a different game. My mother in law swears by this gas relief tea. I believe it's made by Traditional Medicinals. Might be worth a try.
At any rate, anytime it seems something is going sideways, you should definitely call your doc and ask the question. They would vastly prefer spending 5 minutes on the phone with you to you sitting at home suffering or worrying what might be wrong.
Best of luck!

I just want to take a minute to throw out a general thank you to all that are willing to share photos (particularly the gritty, unclothed, saggy skin photos). I think that most of us are going to face some really serious sagging skin and feel just as body conscious, or even worse, than we did about our weight. Seeing that we aren't the only ones that have to deal with this undesirable side effect really helps the negative self-talk where we feel like we're defective or have destroyed our bodies. We don't have to feel like we must be the only one that has skin this saggy, yada, yada, yada.
Heartfelt thanks for being so brave!

That is really awesome that you are so self aware. Learning what you need to do and following through to take care of yourself is the key to the whole thing. I know you are going to be super successful!

I ate a few french fries at lunch just because I wanted them. Fortunately, I was able to pass most of them off to a coworker after I had eaten all I wanted (about 6). I gotta put that in the win column. Like I told my husband when we were talking about how long bags of Snacks last now... at least the bag of chips or whatever actually lasts about the number of servings on the label instead of the entire bag turning into a 15 minute snack in front of the tv. WINNING!

yeah, my hair thinned a bit, so I bleached it blonde and ran with it. the bleaching process fries it just a touch so I still have the same volume I always had, no one notices but me... but it's coming back now.

I have had terrible hair loss, and it can sometimes be difficult to style, however, I have found wearing my hair down is easiest. Most of my loss is visible on the sides, so for me pulling it up isn't as easy to hide. I also sometimes wear head scarves, but don't have any pictures.
I took a close up of the sides and a picture of it down. Not as visible as you would think losing this much hair!
Sent from my iPhone using VST

In hindsight of course my health is above my hair but at 6 months post op and chunks of hair everywhere clogging up my drain and crying in the shower it was horrible. Thank god I had somewhat thick curly hair so it wasn't much noticeable to others. My advice would be try n get ur Protein and Water so important but also difficult in the beginning. Take all ur supplements plus Biotin. Keep ur style low maintenance. Try not to manipulate ur hair as much.
Now that I'm 18 months post op with a 3 month old my hair did grow back but I'm seeing the shedding again probably from pregnancy. I'm doing more "pre-pooing" which is basically a hot oil treatment before you was ur hair. I use organic unrefined coconut oil for that. It makes ur hair more shiny so u will not have to use as much product. Then I also deep condition and leave some leave-in conditioner in my hair. I try to do styles that last more than a day to avoid excess washing. Also keeping hair trimmed so remaining hair is healthy is also key.
My routine will probably change now that I'm going back to hitting the gym but I will always try n keep those basic keys in mind.
Water water water.

I've had very badly thinning hair (so thin you can see big stretches of scalp through the thin hair on top of my head) for a long time before surgery, just due to bad genetics. Here is how I have dealt with it:
--short hair cut with layers in a side part -- this style helps a lot.
--use fill-in fibers such as Toppik or Nanogen (these work great!).
Now I am seeing more and more loss since surgery. I have an appointment to get a topper cut-in (kind of like a partial wig) next month. I had it custom made to match my natural hair. Hopefully it will look as good as I expect it to and not be too much of a pain to take care of.
here is a link to before & after photos of someone with a topper:
http://forum.womenshairlossproject.com/showthread.php?t=3756
she actually had hers made the same place I am getting mine.

I didn't have a lot, but I was a slow loser, and had a lot to begin with. I did cut my hair very short, and I got highlights with lowlights as well to add depth, and the appearance of more volume. Good luck!

I cut my hair back to just above my shoulders and had lots of layers added. The hair that didn't fall out became super dry and brittle, so a good majority of it off helped keep it somewhat healthy looking. At almost seven months out my Hair loss is slowing down and I am sprouting new hair, so I can attest it will come back! :-)

I was so worried about my hair falling out I had nightmares. I would sit up in bed and all my hair would still be on the pillow. Thank god it is not that bad. I have a little thining but nothing you can notice. I am luck to have thick hair and when a few stains fall out I can hide it well. I see some people have posted some extreme post back to you but I have never heard of anyone being so bad off they needed wigs or anything like that. Good luck to you and don't worry you will be fine.

I have left the style but bought Toppick to fill in the thin bits - total lifesaver. It's keratin (hair) fibres that u puff into the roots of ur hair and it looks like u have a full head again. Stays put in wind and rain. Sure there are other companies doing similar but this has worked for me. Know my hair is thinner but no one else can see it now....has taken the stress out of the situation and lets me forget about my Hair loss. Just beginning to slow down after 2 months :-)

weave wigs.. quick-.weave...wigs..........sew in.weave............girl its time to experiment.............

Having a couple thoughts on this. Disclaimer: You should always check with your doc if you are experiencing anything you're not sure about. You never know what might be indicative of something that needs to be checked out.
Having said that... I had some similar experiences. #1, if 500 cal is causing you to experience fatigue, that # of calories isn't sufficient to support you and you should consult with your doc on increasing your calories. We weigh about the same and I cannot function on 500 calories.
Are you experiencing any nausea? Getting a handle on that can help you get enough calories and Fluid to keep you going and reduce fatigue if that's the case.
Has the fatigue been causing you to spend more time in bed? I went about three weeks at that level or a little lower due to nausea and had so little energy that I was in bed every minute I could manage. The fatigue also got to the point where I very nearly passed out in the shower. Even on better days, I had to lay down for a little bit between my shower and getting dressed so I could rest.
Spending so much time in bed caused a backache for me that hurt more with deep breaths. My abdomen/torso also began to hurt with any deep breath. Mostly along my sides towards the front and around my diaphragm.
Are you having regular bowel movements? For me, whatever combination of circumstances were, it seemed like the backache was from being in bed so much, but I was also constipated. Once I managed to have a bowel movement (I was impacted. It took exlax, a suppository, an attempt at self digital extraction (that wasn't a good time...), and an enema to have a bowel movement and it was horrible...) the ache in my abdomen was gone, so I think for me that part of it was just being backed up and the discomfort of gas behind the blockage.
If you are having problems with gas, I read somewhere that the simethicone in the gasx or mylanta gas can't really help. They can only address gas in your upper digestive tract. Once the gas is in your intestines, it's a bit of a different game. My mother in law swears by this gas relief tea. I believe it's made by Traditional Medicinals. Might be worth a try.
At any rate, anytime it seems something is going sideways, you should definitely call your doc and ask the question. They would vastly prefer spending 5 minutes on the phone with you to you sitting at home suffering or worrying what might be wrong.
Best of luck!

Just checking in. I'm about 9? weeks out now (July 23 surgery). From weeks 5-8, I really struggled with nausea - some due to a kink, some due to swelling, so I was eating extremely few calories. I finally got that worked out last Monday and am on stronger anti-nausea meds and have been able to get much closer to Fluid goal and make my Protein goal. I've also been able to eat at the top range of what my nutritionist wants (just below 1400 cal/day). I have gained weight every day since last Monday, so I'm 8 pounds up from what my ticker says, but today was the first day that I didn't gain. Not too worried about it because I know I was an unwilling anorexic and my body is kind of freaking out. My body is increasing Fluid, since I'm able to consume more, this is my pms week, so I'm retaining, and I've been eating higher carb than I have since I started my preop diet, so I'm guessing I might even be replacing glycogen stores, so the gain is pretty easily explainable without fearing that I'm having some kind of fat gain. Should start dropping again in the next few days. Ready to keep progressing!
I'm pretty pleased with my results so far and am learning my new signals as time goes on. It was a bit of a struggle trying to work through the nausea, but all in all, not a big deal. The only thing that I'm really not happy about is the fatigue and weakness the starvation has left me with. Shopping wears me out and after just a couple hours at the mall, my back will hurt, my head will ache, and I'll be limping because I feel like I can barely pick up my feet to keep propelling myself forward. This one thing has been the most demoralizing of this whole process. After having completed triathlons weighing over 300 pounds, to be less than 250 and struggle to shop really sucks. I am still recovering, though. I try to keep my calories consumed as high as possible and try to keep a healthy proportion of carbohydrate so that I can keep my energy up. Every day I have just a tiny bit more energy, and it is getting better, it just feels slow. I think in the next couple weeks, I'll probably feel capable of getting in some light exercise at the gym. Right now, I'm just stopping by the mall on my way home and window shopping for a bit, just to build a little stamina.
Anyway, onward and upward! (Or downward in this case!)
To the rest of you that are having some struggles, just keep at it. Talk to your doc. Try to figure out the cause and how to manage whatever challenge you might be having. There is no need for you to endure or muscle it out. This is a process with an enormous learning curve, and it's different for everyone. But most of all, whatever challenge you might be experiencing, you are not the only one, I guarantee you.
Best of luck to you all!

I ate a few french fries at lunch just because I wanted them. Fortunately, I was able to pass most of them off to a coworker after I had eaten all I wanted (about 6). I gotta put that in the win column. Like I told my husband when we were talking about how long bags of Snacks last now... at least the bag of chips or whatever actually lasts about the number of servings on the label instead of the entire bag turning into a 15 minute snack in front of the tv. WINNING!

Just checking in. I'm about 9? weeks out now (July 23 surgery). From weeks 5-8, I really struggled with nausea - some due to a kink, some due to swelling, so I was eating extremely few calories. I finally got that worked out last Monday and am on stronger anti-nausea meds and have been able to get much closer to Fluid goal and make my Protein goal. I've also been able to eat at the top range of what my nutritionist wants (just below 1400 cal/day). I have gained weight every day since last Monday, so I'm 8 pounds up from what my ticker says, but today was the first day that I didn't gain. Not too worried about it because I know I was an unwilling anorexic and my body is kind of freaking out. My body is increasing Fluid, since I'm able to consume more, this is my pms week, so I'm retaining, and I've been eating higher carb than I have since I started my preop diet, so I'm guessing I might even be replacing glycogen stores, so the gain is pretty easily explainable without fearing that I'm having some kind of fat gain. Should start dropping again in the next few days. Ready to keep progressing!
I'm pretty pleased with my results so far and am learning my new signals as time goes on. It was a bit of a struggle trying to work through the nausea, but all in all, not a big deal. The only thing that I'm really not happy about is the fatigue and weakness the starvation has left me with. Shopping wears me out and after just a couple hours at the mall, my back will hurt, my head will ache, and I'll be limping because I feel like I can barely pick up my feet to keep propelling myself forward. This one thing has been the most demoralizing of this whole process. After having completed triathlons weighing over 300 pounds, to be less than 250 and struggle to shop really sucks. I am still recovering, though. I try to keep my calories consumed as high as possible and try to keep a healthy proportion of carbohydrate so that I can keep my energy up. Every day I have just a tiny bit more energy, and it is getting better, it just feels slow. I think in the next couple weeks, I'll probably feel capable of getting in some light exercise at the gym. Right now, I'm just stopping by the mall on my way home and window shopping for a bit, just to build a little stamina.
Anyway, onward and upward! (Or downward in this case!)
To the rest of you that are having some struggles, just keep at it. Talk to your doc. Try to figure out the cause and how to manage whatever challenge you might be having. There is no need for you to endure or muscle it out. This is a process with an enormous learning curve, and it's different for everyone. But most of all, whatever challenge you might be experiencing, you are not the only one, I guarantee you.
Best of luck to you all!

I ate a few french fries at lunch just because I wanted them. Fortunately, I was able to pass most of them off to a coworker after I had eaten all I wanted (about 6). I gotta put that in the win column. Like I told my husband when we were talking about how long bags of Snacks last now... at least the bag of chips or whatever actually lasts about the number of servings on the label instead of the entire bag turning into a 15 minute snack in front of the tv. WINNING!